bear with me i have just started getting into the finer things with sail boats like set up and tuning. never really cared till i got my own boat. now i just want to make it go faster!

my SC17 is now setup with 5 degrees of mast rake like the manufacture suggested. however. right now i only have a main. should i expect to be adjusting the rake? how much weather helm is too much or too little?

i would start with that rake (if thats the suggested rake from the manu) and see if adding a jib effects it at all (usually doesnt much)

how much weather helm: well not so much that you are fighting with the tiller, or do 360's when you let go of the tiller but a little weather helm is a very good thing (esp when u fall overboard, or a trap wire brakes on you) and your boat takes off without you...

my boat has just a little helm when adjusted right. No tug on my arms, but enough to point up into the wind if i fall off

the factory suggested 5 degrees of rake should be your start

without a jib you may eventually find that zero rake gives you a more balanced helm

BUT, if your SC17 has no daggers, no rake may cost you pointing ability, which is probably more important than a light helm....

in that case you should try raking your rudders forward

if you want speed

get a jib

Yes, get the jib. off the wind the supercat doesn't behave very nice on just a main.
Remember that sailing the sc17 means driving the bows. so even with 5 degrees of rake while on the beach (boat lying backwards actually) the rake will still be negative while sailing.
Rudders are very important on the sc17, those rudders are enormous. almost 3 feet i think. slop on the castings will kill you.

--
Stefan, Denmark.
H14,H16,P16,P18,SC17,N5.8
Team StaySail
http://www.staysail.eu
--

i plan on getting a jib but it might not be till mid summer. last season i did not have the rake set properly and i had no pull on the tiller. and coming about was painful. to the point i would just gibe instead. it was faster

roll-tacking the supercat pays of big time, turning over the stern instead of pushing the bows through the water is much much easier.

--
Stefan, Denmark.
H14,H16,P16,P18,SC17,N5.8
Team StaySail
http://www.staysail.eu
--

Hope you enjoy your SC17, we like ours and you don't hear about them very much.

Carson

'95 SC17



Edited by vintagemilano on Feb 17, 2011 - 11:45 AM.

--
Cranbrook, BC, Canada
SuperCat 17
--

oh i love the SC17 and the ladies it attracts

There actually a lot of sc17s on this forum. 4 or 5 that i know of.
one fun thing to try with the jib is wild thing. the crew gets firehosed!

--
Stefan, Denmark.
H14,H16,P16,P18,SC17,N5.8
Team StaySail
http://www.staysail.eu
--

wild thing? please explain

With a SC, it seems you can get firehosed no matter where on the boat you are when the wind is up But yes doing the wild thing would make sure they get soaked.

--
Scott,
‘92 H18 w/SX wings
‘95 Hobie Funseeker 12 (Holder 12)
‘96/‘01/‘14 Hobie Waves
--

2 Definitions of the Wild Thing. The second one is when you are sailing down wind and you put the crew on the leeward side of the boat to raise with windward side out of the water and reduce the drag. Makes you go much faster but it's a balancing act that could cause you to flip it if you aren't carefule. I believe the first definition was best summed up by Tone Loc's song of the 80's. :)

--
Dave Bonin
1981 Nacra 5.2 "Lucile"
1986 Nacra 5.7 "Belle"
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
--

i figured it was going Loc's route.

Keep the mast raked at 5 degrees per Aquarius. They like to have some rake, but if you stand the mast up straight, Supercat's just don't go. Too much rake is the same issue.

The rudders are huge and really raked under the boat. You really shouldn't have any help issues ever based on mast rake.

You need to really drive the boat--going upwind, you want to move VERY far forward so that the leeward bow is almost under water. It feels uncomfortable at first, but the Supercats have so much volume in the bows, they are hard to pitchpole. Not that it hasn't been done before, but You'll see. The idea is to get the sterns out of the water and use that leeward hull to give you lift. The boat is a completely different animal when you are flying a hull and have the other one buried. It is like the boat has it's own wind.

As far as doing the wild thing on a Supercat--it is my experiance that the wind has to be HONKING to wild thing on one of those. If you have a spinnaker, it is a different story. You don't drive the hulls going down wind like I described above. You sitforward, but just enough to get the sterns to lift up enough to quiet it down.